TS - hate the nasally mid hump and dropped lows
Blues driver - very good pedal almost kept it but kept searching

Barber LTD SR - best OD pedal ever! Goes from clean boost to heavy OD. ZERO tone change. Has a tone knob similar to a Baxandall knob in a tonestack where noon is no change and clockwise = more treb and counter = more lows. It almost sounds 3D. Like your guitar's clean is mixed with it's OD. Absolutely brilliant clarity with each note sounding perfectly present even with heavy OD.

tigerstrat wrote:six, have you tried the Keeley-modded Blues Driver? Or any of the other Keeley Bosses or Ibanezes?

Never tried any keeley modded anything. I took the mentality of if I really, really like the pedal then mod it. With dirt pedals I never found one that fit that but the BD was close. The Barber LTD SR freakin' rocks! Sounds as good to my ears as a well dialed in and cooking tube amp.

After owning the UE-400 for a spell I came to the probably premature/myopic decision that most Ibanez-branded FX were not for me. However, I'm still debating on getting a vintage AD-80. But the Maxon (ya, I know, cousin to Ib) really blow me away!!!

Boss pedals didn't do anything for me but I never really spent much time with too many of them. From my earlier years I was playing like: guitar>535Q>tuner>amp then added a Boss Chorus and Boss Acoustic simulater and they were just okay. Sold them and never really thought of returning. Plus I played around with a GT6/8 which people say nail the Boss stomps perfectly and wasn't impressed.

tigerstrat wrote:I CAN say the Fulltone Full-Drive 2 is amazing, just beautiful. Itching to try their Distortion Pro pedal.

Bingo!! I play through a Fulltone Fulldrive II Mosfet (the red one). It is by far the most transparent od box I have ever heard. It takes your guitar's natural sound and emphasizes it while adding the overdrive. I use it with my Tele deluxe and a Epiphone Sheraton II and it sounds amazing. With just a smidgeon of drive on the first channel with the Tele it just has that awesome vintage Tele tone. It is very cooperative with other effects as well, not drowning anything out nor does it get drowned out itself. I basically run in FM mode standard for most of what I play, but I'll throw the comp cut on for a real sharp and clear Tele twang thing. I run it with a TS-808. I used to use the TS-808 as a tone shaper more than an OD function. Now I use the Fulldrive Channel A for clean crunch and comp cut clarity, Channel 2 for a bit more grit, and then I come over the top with the TS-808 when I really want that dirty blues lead sound. Great pedal.

But the BG is a Boost pedal and a Screamer is an O.D. (that is what "Dirt" is supposed to mean right? Not a term I've used much.)

Besides, an original 70's Maxon 808 really is the $H1T... I've had the opportunity to test drive the entire evolutionary chain of TS's in one sitting, along with several modern copies, like the FD-1, Red Llama... that old purple(red?) Maxon is the bomb... saw one the other day on CL for $600!

On Boosts, I totally agree that a Boosta Grande is a great pedal. You can pay ( a lot) more for a boost pedal, but you if you can beat this one for gain or transparency, it won't be by much. One of the best BBE products ever.

strumminsix wrote:TS - I used "Dirt" generically to be either OD or Dist pedals

yup, just threw me for a moment when reading "Pedal Review: Dirt" , thought it might be the name of a pedal that was being reviewed- then realized it was merely slang. (even though this is an old discussion in which I previously participated. )

... it's just like the name states- very transparent to your basic tone, with very useful and effective Hi and Lo cut/boost controls, and loads of gain AND boost to spare. Warm and silky, but much less pronounced mid-hump than screamers and their ilk. Also, the shell is metal (not plastic like earlier Dano's) and the switch is true-bypass and heavy-duty, and I actually like having the knobs on the front out of the way of the stomp action. Supposedly it's a Timmy Overdrive knockoff (although that one has cut-only tone controls?)and Dano may have to change the circuit. I can't believe a mass-produced-in-China pedal with all SMT components can sound this good! Two gigs with it so far and it's been like butter.